The Vice Admiral, Gibraltar was an operational commander of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. His subordinate units, establishments, and staff were sometimes informally known as the Flag Officer Gibraltar and North Atlantic they were charged with the administration of the RN Naval Base, Gibraltar and

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...

geographic area. The admiral commanding's post later became the Flag Officer Gibraltar.

History

At the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the Gibraltar command was elevated to North Atlantic Command with responsibility for the sea lanes on either side of the Straits of Gibraltar. Those duties remained in place although the flag officers' mission was often unclear due to the operations of both Force H and the

Western Approaches Command Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsibl ...

. It was these ambiguous boundaries of command responsibility between Gibraltar and Force H that led to confusion in the conduct of operations. In his book The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean, Brown discusses this problem and the Admiralty's response: ''The division of responsibility between the Flag Officer North Atlantic Command (FOCNA) and the Flag Officer Force H and the Commander in Chief Mediterranean was defined as follows:'' ''F.O.C.N.A. was responsible for preventing the passage of Gibraltar Strait by all enemy vessels and by vessels of other nations as may be ordered by the Admiralty from time to time''.
''While Force H was based on Gibraltar, F.O.C.N.A. was to call on, Flag Officer, Force H for such assistance as be necessary. Except when directed to carry out specific tasks by the Admiralty''.

Commanders

Included:

Components

*Base ship Gibraltar: HMS Cormorant Before 1939, there was a small force of destroyers based at Gibraltar. Capital Ships *Battleship: (16/12/1939) *Heavy Cruiser: (31/12/1939) Squadrons and Flotillas * 11th Cruiser Squadron 9 October 1939 * 13th Destroyer Flotilla September 1939–May 1945 * 8th Submarine Flotilla December 1940–December 1942 (flotilla then moved to

Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...

) Sub-Divisions * Destroyer Division 25, (assigned to 13th Destroyer Flotilla) * Destroyer Division 26, (assigned to 13th Destroyer Flotilla) Submarine and Minesweepers Groups * 7th Anti Submarine Group * 92nd Minesweeping Group Escort Groups were based at Gibraltar (although they were part of

). * Escort Group 28 * Escort Group 36 * Escort Group 37 * Escort Group 38

References

Sources

*
www.naval-history.net
'

External links

Naval History.net
{{Royal Navy fleets No Military units and formations established in 1939 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Military units and formations of the Royal Navy in World War II